Day: February 27, 2024

When I realized that the Kia EV6 likely wasn’t the car for me, I started thinking about the areas where it failed to be sure about what I was looking for. Kia is fairly new to EVs, so their products are not mature. They don’t seem to have a strong organizational commitment, on either the corporate or dealer side, to EVs at the moment. With the electric market softening over the past year, I wonder about how serious they will continue to be about their models going forward. If they are already having difficulty identifying and fixing wide-spread electrical issues now, what happens if their EV sales tank? Kias currently rely on the less common and reliable charging network, although with the Tesla network opening to other brands in the next 18 months, that will change. If I want an EV, I need one that addresses all these shortcomings.

There was an easy answer to most of these questions.

Oh, God.

Fuck.

Tuesday I test drove a Tesla Model Y.

As usual, we back up before we go forward.

One year to the day before my Tesla test drive, M and I rode down to Cincinnati for a campus visit with her buddy A and her dad T in his Model Y.[1] He is a true convert, ditching a BMW for his Tesla, and extolled the car’s virtues during our roughly four hours in it. This was my first long-term ride in a Tesla, and I liked it, quizzing T about his perspective along the way. As soon as we got home M said, “You’re going to get a Tesla now, aren’t you?”

I said no but, dammit, the girl might have been right.

OK, back to last Tuesday.

I arrived at the dealership, signed a waiver, and an associate led me to a Model Y. She showed me how to get the steering wheel and mirrors to comfortable positions. Being a Tesla, this is not as straightforward as in most cars. Then she guided me on how to find pretty much everything I would need during the drive on the car’s touchscreen.

The dealership sits right in the middle of a huge construction area, so I asked her for a suggestion on the best route to get to the highway. Knowing I had never driven a Tesla before, she recommended taking a couple laps around the next door mall’s parking lot to get used to the acceleration and braking before I drove on the actual street.

Good advice! Kia dude just had me jump on the street and go.

Then she plotted me a route, saying it would take me through neighborhoods and on four-lane streets so I could get a feel of how the car reacted to those scenarios. From there I knew how to get to the nearest interstate on my own.

Then she said, “OK, take it wherever you want, just be back in half an hour or so,” and walked away. No yappy sales person sitting next to me. I was on my own!

The full regenerative braking on the Tesla is trippy. I got the hang of it pretty quickly, although it was weird to have the car slow in proportion to how little pressure I put on the accelerator. I never had an “Oh shit!” moment of panic or confusion. Rather, sometimes I would forget to hit the accelerator when a light turned green since my foot wasn’t putting pressure on anything. Kind of a weird mental block.

I took her advised route, which led me through a rough section of pavement that confirmed that the Model Y has a relatively stiff suspension. Not sure I love that, but it’s not a deal breaker either. I would prefer a more cushioned ride, but also want sporty responsiveness. Those often don’t go together in the budget range I’m currently in. The Tesla definitely leans to the sporty side of that equation.

Once I got to the interstate I zipped around between traffic but, without any big openings, didn’t get a chance to properly punch it. I exited and prepared to turn back towards the dealership. I was the first car at a red light with a long entrance ramp ahead. This was my moment. And then a big ass tractor trailer truck pulled onto the ramp just before I got a green light. Ass.

No worries. Once he got onto the interstate, he quickly moved to the left and I blew by him in the right lane. The dealer had set a speed limit of 85 MPH. I hit that pretty quickly and started laughing. Going from 50-to–85 might be more impressive than 0-to–60. It felt instantaneous. There wasn’t much traffic around me this direction so I let my speed drop and floored it several times just to feel that sensation again.

The big knock about the Tesla driving experience is that so many things are accomplished via the touchscreen.

Like 98% of car functions are controlled through the giant, iPad-like screen. It is a little odd, especially the lack of a center display in the dashboard, but I found it to be very intuitive. You can set shortcuts for most-used settings at the bottom of the screen. I think once you get those dialed in to your preferences, it’s pretty easy to interact with for someone who is fairly tech savvy. The screen is incredibly responsive, very Apple-like, in fact. I didn’t detect any lags in my brief time playing with it.

I much prefer physical knobs and switches. I think it is super annoying that everyday controls are a layer deep on a display. But Tesla’s screen seems to work good enough that this can be overcome. I think their system would be annoying for a casual driver. S and I rarely swap cars. That will likely happen even less often if I get a Tesla because these controls would drive her crazy.

Which brings up one big negative: Tesla does not support Apple CarPlay in any way. You can connect your phone via Bluetooth, but unlike a CarPlay-equipped vehicle, you don’t get access to the entire screen for your media, just small controls at the bottom of the screen. If you want to change playlists in Spotify, or switch between audio apps, that must be done on your phone’s screen. Which isn’t super safe at 75 MPH. But even my buddy who works at Apple and owned a Tesla admitted that their systems are good enough that he didn’t mind having to use them over CarPlay. That said, he now drives a Lucid which does support CarPlay.

There are some third party adapters that allow you to add a CarPlay screen, but they seem pretty janky. For their cost you might as well pay for Tesla’s Premium Connectivity to run Spotify or Apple Music natively.

Another bummer is that Model Ys do not support SiriusXM. I’ve been an SXM subscriber for ten years and it is a huge part of my music life. I could still stream it via the app and Bluetooth, but I’m not sure that’s worth the annual cost given the lack of on-screen controls.

The car’s interior is very spare. There is a ton of storage room, like amazing amounts. I think that can lead to having too much crap in your car. But I also find my Audi has like 20% too little space, making it difficult to store necessities within reach of the driver. Other than all that storage, the Tesla is pretty spartan inside. I would describe it as nice but not luxurious by any measure.

I’ve also learned that Tesla has moved from a combination of ultrasonic sensors and cameras similar to my Audi, to exclusively using cameras for proximity alerts. While their cameras are of amazing quality, they are far less accurate and users complain that the car will often scream at them that they are about to hit a wall, parked car, etc when they are actually several feet away. Not sure how cool that is when the charging port is in the rear of the vehicle, normally requiring the driver to back into a charging station. The lack of sensors can also make some of the assistive driving functions a little wonky, especially in poor lighting conditions. I guess these are all things that you get used to, and may be adjusted with future software refreshes. It seems like a misguided cost-cutting move, though, to ditch the sensors.

In summary, the Tesla felt far more competent than the Kia. Teslas aren’t without their issues; a lot of owners complain about fit and finish issues inside and out. The driving software can be temperamental. Apparently the automatic windshield wipers are infuriating in their lack of consistency. But Tesla is also famous for a constant flow of software updates that both fix reported issues and roll out new functionality. When mechanically possible, a Tesla that is several years old can have the exact same, updated functionality as a car straight off the production line. Teslas have been around for a decade and are backed by a company that is solely focused on EVs. Throw in their massive, easy-to-use Supercharger network, and the Model Y was a clear winner over the Kia EV6.

After I returned to the dealer the lady who had helped me get set up was out on a break so I talked to another associate. He was very chill. I asked him how come their website shows a bunch of cars on the lot that are exactly the same with incrementally different prices. Other than the type of motor (Rear wheel, all wheel Long Range, or all wheel Performance), about all you can select as options are exterior and interior colors, tire size, five versus seven seats, and if you want to add a towing hitch or not.

“Honestly I couldn’t tell you,” he said. His best guess was their pricing algorithm is based on how long a car has been on the lot and inserts discounts to move the oldest first for tax purposes. “They are all the same. My best advice is to find what you want and pick the cheapest one.”

I liked this process much more than Kia’s. Hell, if S was into EVs, she would 100% buy a Tesla just because of their laid-back, low-contact sales interactions. You can actually buy a car on your phone without ever talking to another human if you want!

Tesla’s current incentives aren’t quite as aggressive as Kia’s. Kia’s are generous enough at the moment that we were considering buying one even with two months left on my Audi lease. Tesla’s current price cuts are not as steep, meaning there’s no rush. They’ve been aggressive with price cuts over the past year, so I bet they’ll drop prices again between now and the day my lease expires.

So as of today, I think I will be replacing my Audi Q5 with a Tesla Model Y Long Range. I already got my buddy T’s referral code so we can both earn some goodies out of it.

I had one electrician out last week to get an estimate to run a line for a home charger, and have messages out to several others to take a look. Being able to charge your EV at home is a game changer, the step that truly makes owning an EV radically different from a traditional car. Superchargers are great for road trips, but charging at home for everyday travel is cheaper and far more convenient.

I’ll continue to do research over the next couple months to make sure this is the right choice. I’ve been reading about a few other cars, but nothing has jumped out at me as requiring a test drive.

To close this post, I want to make a very important point: Elon still fucking sucks. If I get a Tesla I might get a bumper sticker that says “Fuck Elon.” That’ll start some conversations!